A video posted on YouTube (believed to be by Anonymous) tells of how the group is planning to “kill Facebook” on the 5th of November.
The group claims that Facebook has turned into a seriously invasive company. It has also suggested that the firm sells users’ personal information, possibly allowing it to end up in the hands of government agencies.
This is one of the key factors which is believed to have motivated the hacktivist group to attempt to shut down Facebook. Anonymous, which formed in 2003, is a group which initiates active civil disobedience through the Internet.
In recent years, they have become strongly associated with international hacktivism, often with the aim of promoting freedom of speech, as well as Internet freedom, whilst staying hidden.
Hacktivism is defined as an act of hacking, or breaking into computer systems, for socially or politically motivated reasons. Anonymous has been linked with the hacking of a number of websites in recent years.
It has been suggested by some commentators that Anonymous plans to orchestrate a denial of service attack on Facebook, which will result in the site being inaccessible on November 5th.
Some have also suggested that the claims regarding the level of Facebook’s invasion of privacy are overblown, but could possibly motivate companies of its type to exercise greater caution when handling user data.
widget by-Ayush Jain
